A new Wetherspoons pub due to be opened in Felixstowe is included in an £145 million investment by the chain, it has been confirmed.

Wetherspoon will be creating around 2,000 new jobs nationwide by opening new venues and upgrading existing ones, with Felixstowe earmarked as one of 18 new pubs that will open.

The ambitious plans will start within weeks of its pubs reopening fully as the lockdown eases and that would see plans for the pub at Great Eastern Square among those heading the list, which also includes Leeds, Birmingham, Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire, Sheffield, Heswall on the Wirral, Dublin, Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Carmarthen and Glasgow.

Planners last August granted permission for the Felixstowe pub to be built and locals have already offered up a list of suggested names for the new hostelry. (Full story here...)

Once all 75 of these projects are complete, Wetherspoon said it anticipates investing £750 million to open 15 new pubs and enlarging 50 existing pubs each year for 10 years, creating 20,000 new jobs.

Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin said: "Our immediate investment will provide work for architects, contractors and builders as well as result in 2,000 new jobs for staff in our pubs.

"We are geared up to start on the first projects within a few months.

"We are also committed to our long-term investment and job creation programme over the next decade.

"However, the investment is conditional on the UK opening back up again on a long-term basis, with no further lockdowns or the constant changing of rules."